Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

When you live with daughters everything is a crisis. I can be happily washing the dishes at the sink downstairs, humming along, enjoying the serenity of the moment when BAM!!! - screeching, ear piercing shrills from the bathroom up the stairs, “Mom Help! Help! There is no shampoo!” Needless to say, parents have crisis management down to a science.

When organizations fall into crisis, the parent becomes what is professionally refered to as "the crisis manager". According to news columist, Larry Woodard at http://www.abcnews.com/, crisis mangement has become advertising, marketing and public relation's youngest sibling and crisis managers are needed in today's dense media world.

Public relations experts like to use “wiggle” words when addressing a crisis, verbiage such as: usually, often, it looks like, it appears to be, prefer to, I did not have sex with that woman, etc. Like the ogre in the famed fable, Jack in the Beanstalk, who utters “fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman”, the media can ferret out a story in a minute, so words are important. And according to Robert Andrews, former assistant director for public relations at Johnson & Johnson during their famed faux pa, today’s media, thanks in part to social media, often knows about an unfolding crisis well before corporate executives do. Therefore, it is imperative that corporations have a crisis management plan in place well ahead of the game.
 
I can only guess how my beloved Nordstrom’s would handle a crisis. What happens when Louboutin stops making shoes, I shudder to think? Of course this means I am going to have to go to http://shop.nordstrom.com/ to research this assignment. This is hilarious; I can now tell my husband that I need to go to Nordstrom for research, hee, hee.

Leave it to Nordstrom not to disappoint me. The main page has a tab called, Investor Relations, http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=93295&p=irol-irhome , one click and there is the strategy to outreach to investors, “E-mail Alerts”. All anyone has to do is enter one’s email address and they will receive “Nordstrom News” such as proxy statements, financial and news alerts. Click and there is SEC filing news, the governance of publically traded stocks, which is automatically sent out. The SEC archive has access to everything SEC related since Nordstrom went public. By the way, Nordstrom stock traded up today by 4.02%.

Our text book, Digital Strategies for Powerful Corporate Communications by Paul Argenti, states that one’s corporate website is an effective means for communication with stakeholders during a crisis. 71% of the participants in the 2008 PR Week/Burson-Marsteller CEO Survey believed that a company’s website is the most effective means for a company to communicate with consumers in a crisis. Nordstrom has that box checked and I would not have an augmentation to a "nordie" plan, they may vote me off the island and an email alert is a viable means to communicate in a crisis.

Here is my version of crisis management do’s and don’ts. First and foremost tell me the truth. I truly believe the truth is the right answer in a crisis – not too much but not too little. If you are not going to ever put my precious Louboutins on sale – just tell me. This way I can start saving. Don’t dottle. It is important to respond quickly. Don’t forget me. The customer, stakeholder and/or victim should never be ignored or blamed. I don’t hear you. Get your head out of the sand and do not ignore negative issues. And if all else fails – read how Johnson & Johnson handled its Tylenol crisis over two decades ago. And most important, don’t wear pants and there will be nothing to catch on fire – just wear those fire engine red Louboutins.